On the topic of bear baiting, the actual practice was full-on blood sport. It went on for hundreds of years and didn't completely phase out until the 20th century. The sort that you were describing was popular in England and what would happen was: a bear would be taken into a specific arena called a bear garden (a circular fence around a 'pit' with raised seating for spectators. There, the bear would be chained by the leg or neck to a post, after which a pack of hunting dogs, often specifically trained for the purposes of these events would be set upon the bear to maul it--usually to death. It became so popular during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries that groups of bears would be kept solely for the purpose of 'performing' in these spectacles.

As for a show idea, I think counter irritation would interesting. That is, the practice of creating wounds and introducing foreign substances into them. The administrator would usually repeat the exercise frequently enough to prevent the wound from healing over. I know kings Henry VIII and Charles II of England had this done and a lot of other poor saps, too.